This season’s excavations on the site of Galeata (loc. Poderina) produced new evidence regarding the phases pre-dating the construction in the early Principate of the villa, whose production sector was partially excavated during previous years. Indeed, the excavations have shown the presence of a permanent settlement, datable to the first phase of Romanisation in the valley, between the late 3rd and the full 2nd century B.C. Until last year, the existence of the settlement was a hypothesis based only on a few fragments of black glaze ware found in lower layers and in layers of fill, on both sides of the via Pantano during previous seasons. In 2014, a section of wall was identified (fully excavated in 2015), built of tile fragments. The wall was dated to this period by the presence of a large quantity of black glaze ware fragments mainly datable to the 2nd century B.C., together with residual fragments of impasto pottery, certainly of the same date, in the stratigraphy that was in phase with it.
In 2015, a large trench was opened (c. 12 × 7 m), revealing two kilns, and two rooms. The latter had been rebuilt and altered several times, the latest of which partially overlay and obliterated the previous building. The earliest kiln presented a single short corridor dug in the terrain and a sub-circular praefurnium situated at the east end. A clay dome must have covered the firing chamber, inside which the vessels were fired in direct contact with the fire. This primitive structure produced the hand-made pottery found in abundance throughout the area. Pottery fragments found in the fill of ash and charcoal inside the praefurnium and the firing chamber date the abandonment of this first kiln, which was probably in use for a short time, to the 2nd century B.C., when a second, larger kiln, situated immediately to the south, replaced it.
The second kiln, also with a single corridor, was in a better state of preservation and more structured than the first. It had a firing chamber with a perforated floor and produced fine black glaze table-wares and coarse wares. The type of ware was identified with certainty by the analysis of production residues, transformed by the heat, found in cohesive blocks inside the firing chamber, against the walls and in contact with the arches supporting the firing floor that had collapsed. These ceramic residues, relating to the last production, can be attributed to forms dating to the full 2nd century B.C., period in which the kiln was abandoned, as was the adjacent service room built with tile fragments, situated two metres to the north. In the Augustan period, a second, larger storeroom replaced the earlier service room, and was functional to the large kilns built just to the south, in the first phase of the large urban-rustic villa.

Although the excavations have provided an initial chronology for the occupation of the area, the comprehension of the nature and actual extension of the settlement has proved to be more complicated. The excavated elements, datable to between the late 3rd and the 2nd century B.C., are all production structures and clearly belong to a workshop area. The limited size of the excavated area means that for the moment it cannot be established whether this was the production sector of a small village or of a villa supplying the surrounding territory with its products.